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Saturday, April 2, 2016

A Confession in Honor of the World Autism Awareness Day

Beth Hiatt, 13, is the co-editor
of her school’s magazine, and she recently wrote an article called “Let’sTalk About Autism” for the publication explaining how autism affects her
daily life — and how she hopes to change the public’s perception of people on the
spectrum.

I, too, have autism. And I’m not
ashamed to admit that. Mine is the high functioning variety also known as
Asperger’s Syndrome, just like Beth Hyatt, the 13-year old girl who wrote the
article “Let’s Talk About Autism.” Although not two autistics are alike, there
are certain similarities between Beth and myself. Like her, I, too, suffered from
a variety of physical symptoms associated with autism. For instance, I, too,
couldn’t stand the labels on my shirts and blouses, and chose to tear them all
off. For many years and until my late teens, I had occasions when I could hear
the blood coursing through my veins, and it drove me crazy. I also had low
tolerance for certain smells which seemed too pungent to me, even as others
around me seemed to be unaware of them. For long I walked in a strange robotic
way. And I suffered sensory overload in class. For many years, the only way I
could handle this was to phase out and daydream. But, in time, I learned to
focus intently on the teacher as an alternative. In college, I always sought to
sit in the front row in order to make it easier for me to do so.

In time, most of these physical symptoms
gradually disappeared: I rarely hear the sound of my own blood, and I don’t
tear off my shirts’ labels anymore. But my isolationist tendencies and the
awkward nature of my social interactions have returned with a vengeance. This is
why I seldom leave home these days, and have drastically cut down on my media
appearances, as many people have noticed. There is no way to shake this thing
off. The solution is simply to seek the establishment of a new balance. This is
currently happening, albeit all too slowly.

One final similarity between my case and Beth’s is that both
of us seem to have chosen writing as our favorite mode of communications.

Go ahead, patronize me!

About Ammar

Ammar Abdulhamid is a Syrian-American author and pro-democracy activist based in Silver Spring, Maryland. He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.

The Delirica

The Delirica is a companion blog to the Daily Digest of Global Delirium meant to highlight certain DDGD items by publishing them as separate posts. Also, the Delirica republishes articles by Ammar that appeared on other sites since 2016. Older articles can be found on Ammar's internet archive: Ammar.World